LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  of  ILLINOIS. 


MODERN 

Industrial  Progress, 

AND  THE 

INFLUENCES  ACCELERATING  ITS  MARCH : 


AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT  THE  OPENING  OF  THE  FORTY-FIRST  ANNUAL 
EXHIBITION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE  OF 
THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK; 


BY 

FREDERICK  A.  P.  BARNARD,  LL.D.,  L.H.D., 

President  of  Columbia  College,  and  President  of  the  Institute. 


PUBLISHED  BY  OEDEE  OP  THE  BOAED  OF  MANAGERS. 


CHARLES  H.  JONES  &  CO.,  PRINTERS, 

114  FULTON  STREET. 


TRUSTEES  OF  THE  AMERICAN  INSTITUTE. 


F.  A.  P.  BARNARD,  President . 

CHARLES  P.  DALY, 

ORESTES  CLEVELAND, 

HENRY  A.  BURR, 

JOHN  E.  GAVIT,  Pec.  SeCy. 
SAMUEL  D.  TILLMAN,  Cor.  Sec\y. 
SYLVESTER  R.  COMSTOCK,  Treas. 


Vice-Presidents. 


BOARD  OF  MANAGERS 

Of  the  Forty-First  Annual  Fair: 


James  Knight, 

Nathan  C.  Ely, 

Geoege  Timpson, 

Alex.  M.  Eagleson, 
Chaeles  E.  Bued, 

James  LI.  Sackett, 
Chaeles  A.  Cook, 

J.  Teumbull  Smith, 
Edwaed  Walkee, 
Claeence  L.  Van  Zandt, 
William  Dean, 

Geoege  Randell, 


William  E.  Gayit, 

B.  T.  Buenham, 

Robeet  J.  Dodge, 

Feank  I).  Cuetis, 
Nathaniel  A.  Williams 
R.  H.  Thueston, 

Robeet  Weie, 

Adolphus  J.  Halsey, 
Chaeles  F.  Allen, 
Chaeles  S.  Aethue, 
Heney  J.  Newton, 
Samuel  R.  Wells. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  BOARD: 

James  Knight,  Chairman.  Nathan  C.  Ely,  Vice-Chairman 
John  W.  Chambees,  Secretary. 


•> 


ADDRESS 


1— 


p 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

Jt 

It  is  my  pleasant  dutj7  to  bid  you  welcome  to  the  forty¬ 
's  first  annual  exhibition  of  the  processes  and  products  of 
^  American  industry,  made  under  the  auspices  of  the 

Y  American  Institute  of  New  York.  Among  the  goodly 
£ 

j>  company  before  me  are  not  a  few  who  have  honored  us 
O  with  their  presence  on  similar  occasions  before.  These, 
(*°when  they  shall  presently  have  had  an  opportunity  to 
scan  with  attention  the  many  interesting  objects  brought 
together  so  closely  and  arranged  so  tastefully  and  judici¬ 
ously  in  this  vast  hall,  will  bear  me  out,  I  am  sure,  in  the 
assertion  that  in  point  of  variety,  in  point  of  value,  in 
point  of  the  beauty  and  finish  of  objects  of  art  or  articles 
of  manufacture,  and  in  point  of  the  ingenuity  displayed  in 
the  construction  of  machines  and  the  efficiency  exhibited 
in  their  performance  under  our  eyes,  the  present  exhibi- 


1 


1/  0  5 


4 


INDUSTRIAL  CHARACTERISTIC  OF  THE  AGE. 


tion  is  decidedly  superior  to  all  that  have  gone  before  it. 
There  are  some  in  this  audience  whose  opportunities  of 
observation  and  comparison  extend  over  a  long  period  of 
years.  Here  and  there,  indeed,  I  observe  a  veteran 
devotee  to  the  cause  of  industrial  improvement,  who  has 
faithfully  labored  in  promoting  the  objects  and  furthering 
the  operations  of  this  Institute  from  the  day  of  its  foun¬ 
dation,  and  who  has  attended  every  one  of  its  exhibitions 
from  the  very  first.  To  such,  the  contrast  which  must 
present  itself  between  that  modest  beginning,  as  it  returns 
to  the  eye  of  the  mind,  and  the  present  magnificent  dis¬ 
play,  will  seem  almost  a  transformation  wrought  by  the 
power  of  magic.  This  transformation  is  seen  not  merely 
in  the  greater  magnitude  of  the  present  exhibition,  though 
in  this  respect  the  present  surpasses  the  former  in  the 
proportion  of  twenty,  perhaps,  to  one,  but  still  more  in  the 
character  of  the  objects  exhibited.  For  of  these  objects, 
many — so  many  that,  if  the  number  were  definitely  stated, 
it  would  excite  astonishment  if  not  incredulity — are  the 
products  or  the  instruments  of  industries  which  did  not 
exist  when  this  Institute  was  founded,  and  which,  in 
many  instances  had  not  yet  even  suggested  themselves  to 
the  active  brains  which  have  since  conceived  and  perfected 
them. 

INDUSTRIAL  CHARACTERISTIC  OF  THE  AGE. 

This  is  a  point  on  which  I  purpose  for  a  moment  to 
dwell,  for  it  suggests  a  characteristic  which  distinctly  and 
strongly  marks  our  age,  and  sets  it  in  bold  and  significant 


INDUSTRIAL  CHARACTERISTIC  OF  THE  AGE.  5 

contrast  with  all  the  ages  which  have  gone  before ;  pre¬ 
cisely  as  this  illustration  of  it  in  our  exhibition  of  to-day 
is  in  contrast  with  that  early  and  feeble  demonstration 
made  by  our  infant  Institute  in  the  year  1830.  This 
characteristic  is  the  extraordinary  multiplication  of  in¬ 
dustries  and  of  helps  to  industry  which  is  going  on  at  this 
moment,  and  which  has  been  going  on  since  this  century 
began  with  a  rapidity  of  movement  which  increases  from 
year  to  year  in  geometrical  ratio.  An  exact  measure  of 
this  progress  it  might  be  difficult  to  find;  still,  it  is  pro¬ 
bably  safe  to  say  that,  taking  into  consideration  the  birth 
of  new  arts  and  the  increased  efficiency  introduced  into 
old  ones  by  means  of  new  machines  and  new  processes, 
the  productive  power  of  manufacturing  industry  has  much 
more  than  doubled  since  this  Institute  was  founded,  and 
has  increased  ten  fold  since  the  declaration  of  American 
Independence.  It  is  a  fact  which  we  find  it  difficult  to 
realize  at  present,  but  which  is  nevertheless  literally  true, 
that  within  this  brief  period,  the  industry  of  Europe  and 
America,  in  all  its  departments,  has  been  completely 
revolutionized  and  transformed,  by  the  substitution  of 
machine  labor  for  hand  labor ;  so  that  all  the  numerous, 
endlessly  varied,  and  wonderfully  ingenious  forms  of 
mechanism,  by  means  of  which  the  operations  of  manu¬ 
facture  are  at  present  conducted,  have  been  created  out  of 
nothing  since  the  United  States  became  a  member  of  the 
family  of  nations;  simple  tools  for  hand  use,  and  a  few 
machines  of  the  most  elementary  description,  being  all 
that  the  ingenuity  of  preceding  ages  had  been  able  to 


f 

6  RELATION  OF  THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS  TO  CIVILIZATION. 

contribute  to  the  advancement  of  productive  power  in  the 
useful  arts. 

RELATION  OF  THE  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS  TO  CIVILIZATION. 

In  view  of  this  remarkable  fact,  we  are  naturally  led 
to  inquire  how  it  has  happened  that  the  inventive  power 
of  man,  after  the  lapse  of  centuries  of  slumberous  in¬ 
activity,  should,  just  at  this  period  of  the  world's  history, 
have  received  so  sudden  an  impulse,  and  have  awakened 
to  an  activity  so  lively  and  so  persistent  1  The  arts 
which  minister  to  human  comfort  or  enjoyment  are 
sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  arts  of  civilization.  Has 
our  civilization  kept  step  with  the  march  of  our  indus¬ 
trial  improvement  1  The  assumption  is  often  made  that 
we  may  read  the  condition  of  any  people  as  to  the  degree 
of  its  advancement  in  civilization  by  simply  looking  at 
the  products  of  its  industry.  In  accordance  with  this 
principle,  Mr.  Michael  Chevalier,  Senator  of  France 
under  the  Second  Empire,  speaking  of  the  picture  pre¬ 
sented  in  the  great  International  Exposition  of  1862,  in 
London,  where  were  to  be  seen  side  by  side  the  ex¬ 
quisitely  finished  achievements  of  European  skill,  and 
the  ruder  fabrics  of  Asiatic,  African,  or  South  American 
industry,  remarked  that  the  exhibition  formed  a  perfect 
map  of  civilization,  in  which  the  relative  advancement  of 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  could  be  read  at  a  glance. 
There  is  something  of  truth  in  this,  but  certainly  it  is  not 
wholly  true.  Civilization  has  possibly  reached  a  higher 


CIVILIZATION  COMPATIBLE  WITH  INDUSTRY. 


7 


plane  to-day,  in  this  country  and  in  England,  than  it  had 
attained  in  the  year  1772  ;  but  certainly  the  difference  is 
not  such  a  difference  as  is  found  to  exist  between  the 
condition  of  the  industrial  arts  in  either  of  these  countries, 
at  the  former  of  the  two  periods  compared  and  at  the 
present. 


HIGH  CIVILIZATION  COMPATIBLE  WITH  A  LOW  STATE  OF 

INDUSTRY. 

If  we  measure  the  civilization  of  a  people  by  the 
degree  of  its  intellectual  culture  or  its  aesthetic  refine¬ 
ment,  there  have  been  periods  in  the  world’s  history  dis¬ 
tinguished  for  a  civilization  of  the  very  highest  order, 
when  yet  the  common  arts  of  life  were  at  a  low  ebb. 
Such  was  the  culminating  period  of  Grecian  literary 
glory,  marked  by  the  production  of  masterpieces  in  phil¬ 
osophy,  in  oratory,  in  history  and  in  poetry,  which  for 
more  than  two  thousand  years  have  commanded  the 
admiration  of  the  world,  and  which  are  even  yet  unsur¬ 
passed  for  power  of  thought  or  brilliancy  of  fancy.  Such 
also  was,  a  few  centuries  later,  the  Augustan  age  of 
Homan  literature,  an  age  which  has  left  behind  it  monu¬ 
ments  of  genius  hardly  less  admirable  than  those  of 
Greece.  During  both  these  periods  the  fine  arts  also 
were  cultivated  to  a  degree  of  perfection  which  the  world 
had  never  seen  before  and  has  scarcely  seen  since.  It  is 
indeed  a  faith  held  by  many  that  the  sculptures  of 
Praxiteles  and  Phidias  have  never  been  approached  in 


8 


CIVILIZATION  COMPATIBLE  WITH  INDUSTRY. 


merit  by  any  modern  production.  Yet,  at  the  very  time 
that  Athens  was  thus  deluged  as  it  were  in  a  blaze  of 
intellectual  light,  she  had  not  so  much  as  a  water-wheel 
or  a  wind-mill  in  all  her  territory.  Her  citizens  ground 
their  wheat  to  Hour  in  a  species  of  wretched,  hand-mills  ; 
employing  for  this  purpose,  as  for  every  other  toilsome 
service,  the  labor  of  slaves.  The  industrial  arts  were,  in 
fact,  very  unequally  developed  among  the  Greeks.  None 
attained  a  higher  degree  of  perfection  among  that  people 
than  the  absolute  necessities  of  the  civilized  state  de¬ 
manded  ;  unless  they  happened  to  be  arts  capable  of  feed¬ 
ing  the  love  of  splendor,  as  well  as  of  ministering  to  the 
natural  wants  of  man.  Thus  architecture  was  cultivated 
and  exalted  to  the  rank  of  a  fine  art ;  and  the  crumbling 
monuments  of  that  early  architectural  period  are  still 
studied  for  their  beautiful  proportions ;  while  the  princi¬ 
ples  of  construction  laid  down  by  their  builders  continue 
to  be  received  as  law  by  the  architects  of  our  own  time. 
In  respect  to  most  other  arts,  however,  the  polished 
Greeks  were  far  behind  such  peoples  as  at  this  day  we 
are  accustomed  to  speak  of  contemptuously  as  half  civil¬ 
ized.  They  had  learned  the  composition  of  glass,  and 
for  some  simple  purposes  they  had  made  use  of  it :  but 
they  knew  nothing  of  the  use  of  lenses  for  the  assistance 
of  imperfect  vision,  nor  did  their  ingenuity  suffice  to  the 
invention  of  a  simple  plane  mirror  to  furnish  the  dressing- 
rooms  of  their  ladies.  They  constructed  wheeled  vehicles 
for  chariots  in  war,  and  for  the  transportation  of  persons 
and  merchandise  in  peace  ;  but  they  had  not  the  sagacity 


THE  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION. 


9 


to  suspend  the  bodies  of  these  vehicles,  and  they  were 
consequently  driven  to  the  employment  of  chairs  or  litters 
borne  by  slaves,  for  conveyance  with  any  degree  of  com¬ 
fort  from  place  to  place.  The  implements  of  their  agri¬ 
culture  were  no  less  rude.  In  its  ordinary  form,  the 
Greek  or  Roman  plow  was  little  better  than  a  crooked 
stick  sharpened ;  and  even  in  its  most  elaborate  construc¬ 
tion,  as  described  by  Virgil,  it  was  ridiculously  inade¬ 
quate  to  the  object  intended.  Nor  was  the  condition  of 
their  carpentry  any  better.  They  possessed  no  imple¬ 
ments  corresponding  to  the  modern  plane  ;  but  shaped 
and  smoothed  their  planks  and  timbers  as  they  best 
could  with  the  saw,  the  chisel  and  the  adze. 

THE  EGYPTIAN  CIVILIZATION. 

But  the  Greeks  were  by  no  means  the  earliest  of  peo¬ 
ples  to  attain  an  advanced  civilization,  without  apparently 
any  corresponding  development  of  the  common  arts  of 
life.  Judging  by  the  magnitude  and  the  artistic  character 
of  the  architectural  monuments  which  they  left  behind 
them  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  the  ancient  Egyptians 
must  have  attained  a  very  high  degree  of  culture  at  a 
period  vastly  more  ancient.  Among  these  monuments, 
the  earliest  in  date  of  all  is  ascertained  to  be  the  pyramid 
of  Cheops,  a  stupendous  mass  of  masonry  covering  an 
area  of  thirteen  acres  in  extent,  and  in  its  originally  per¬ 
fect  state  rising  to  an  altitude  greater  than  has  ever  been 
given  to  any  other  artificial  structure  erected  by  man. 


10 


CAUSES  ACCELERATING  MODERN  INDUSTRY. 


The  point  of  time  in  ancient  chronology  to  which  this 
great  monument  should  be  assigned  is  matter  of  dispute. 
Some  authorities  carry  it  back  more  than  five  thousand 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  but  none  bring  it  nearer 
to  us  than  the  two  thousand  seven  hundredth  year  before 
Christ,  which  would  place  it  some  four  thousand  six  hun¬ 
dred  years  before  our  own  time.  In  the  many  centuries 
of  darkness  and  violence  which  have  elapsed  since  the 
early  civilization  of  Egypt  was  blotted  out,  this  magnifi¬ 
cent  structure  has  been  despoiled,  through  the  reckless 
cupidity  of  barbarian  conquerors,  of  its  once  beautiful 
external  sheathing;  so  that  it  presents  now  to  the  eye  of 
the  traveler  the  aspect  of  a  rude  pile  of  roughly  shapen 
stones.  Yet  still  its  internal  passages  and  chambers,  pro¬ 
tected  by  their  difficult  accessibility,  exhibit  all  the  per¬ 
fection  and  finish  which  once  characterized  the  whole; 
and  which  is  such  as  to  have  drawn  from  expert  engineers 
and  men  of  science,  who  have  made  its  details  a  study, 
the  extraordinary  testimony  that  this,  the  most  ancient 
architectural  structure  in  all  the  world,  is,  in  its  work¬ 
manship,  also  the  most  perfect.  And  notwithstanding 
this,  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  Egyptians  were  any 
more  advanced  than  the  Greeks  in  the  arts  which  we  call 
distinctively  useful. 

CAUSES  ACCELERATING  THE  PROGRESS  OF  MODERN 
INDUSTRY. 

These  references  to  the  evidences  of  a  high  state  of 
civilization  existing  along  with  a  meagre  development  of 


MODERN  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR. 


11 


the  common  arts  of  life  in  remote  antiquity,  are  designed 
to  show  that  the  giant  growth  of  the  productive  power  of 
industry  in  the  latest  of  the  centuries,  is  by  no  means  to 
be  accounted  for  on  the  assumption  of  the  superior  civili¬ 
zation  of  our  own  times.  The  causes  must,  therefore,  be 
sought  elsewhere;  and  in  this  instance  as  in  regard  to 
many  other  social  phenomena,  they  will  be  found  in  a 
combination  of  influences  which,  though  the  silent  growth 
of  centuries,  have  only  begun  to  operate  harmoniously 
and  powerfully  in  these  recent  years.  Among  these  in¬ 
fluences  two  have  been  preeminently  efficient,  and  these 
I  propose  briefly  to  notice.  First,  as  especially  honorable 
to  our  age,  I  name  the  recognition  in  modern  society  of 
the  dignity  of  labor.  The  other  is  the  stimulating 
influence  of  scientific  investigation  upon  industrial  im¬ 
provement. 

MODERN  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR. 

In  those  early  periods  of  high  civilization  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  the  task  of  providing  for  the 
daily  wants  of  society  was  laid  upon  a  servile  class  ;  and 
if  any  freeman  felt  himself  compelled  by  the  narrowness 
of  his  means  to  engage  in  a  mechanical  occupation,  he 
was  esteemed  as  little  better  than  a  slave.  Society  was 
thus  divided  into  castes.  To  the  superior  class  belonged 
all  the  culture  and  refinement ;  to  the  inferior  all  the 
toil.  The  processes  of  the  arts  of  industry  were  followed 
by  those  who  were  fated  to  pursue  them,  in  a  dull  and 


12 


MODERN  RECOGNITION  OF  THE  DIGNITY  OF  LABOR. 


spiritless  routine.  The  operative  felt  no  pride  in  his 
calling,  and  no  ambition  to  improve  its  methods.  There 
was  no  stimulus  to  such  an  ambition,  since  improvement 
could  bring  with  it  no  honor ;  and  whatever  aspirations 
might  arise  in  the  breast  of  an  individual  of  humble  rank 
to  mend  his  position,  incited  rather  the  desire  to  escape 
from  his  vocation  than  to  attain  excellence  in  it.  If  the 
statesmanship  of  those  times  was  sagacious  enough,  as  it 
probably  was,  to  perceive  that  the  wealth  of  a  nation,  and 
by  consequence  its  political  importance  and  its  military 
strength,  depend  upon  the  productiveness  of  its  industry, 
it  was  nevertheless  blind  to  the  truth  that  in  order 
that  industry  may  be  productive,  labor  must  be  made 
honorable. 

Upon  this  point  we  at  length  see  clearly.  Intellectual 
culture  is  prized  by  us  no  less  highly  than  it  was  among 
the  Greeks — more  highly,  perhaps,  in  a  certain  sense, 
since  we  desire  that  its  benefits  shall  be  extended  to  the 
multitudes,  and  not  confined  to  a  few ;  but  we  have 
discovered  that  culture  and  practical  usefulness  are  not  at 
variance,  and  that  both  in  their  several  ways  are  deserving 
of  respect.  That  may  be  a  high  state  of  civilization,  but 
it  certainly  is  not  a  healthy  or  desirable  one,  in  which  an 
aristocracy  of  wealth  or  of  family  monopolizes  the  intelli¬ 
gence  and  the  refinement  and  the  political  power,  while 
the  great  mass  of  the  people,  crushed  beneath  the  weight 
of  poverty’ and  ignorance,  are  forced  to  minister  to  the 
wants,  the  comforts  and  the  pleasures  of  their  superiors, 
and  are  despised  because  they  do  so.  Such  a  civilization 


MODERN  AND  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION  CONTRASTED. 


13 


observed  across  an  intervening  waste  of  barbarous  centu¬ 
ries,  may  seem  all  beautiful  and  bright,  because  its  repul¬ 
sive  features  are  obscured  by  distance,  while  the  more 
brilliant  remain  conspicuous ;  but  it  exists  in  violation  at 
once  of  equity  and  of  the  common  interests  of  all  the 
classes  whom  it  covers  ;  and  ,  resting  on  no  solid  ground,  is 
liable  always  to  be  swept  away  by  convulsions  originating 
among  its  own  unstable  social  elements,  or  by  violence 
proceeding  from  without. 


MODERN  AND  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION  CONTRASTED. 

The  civilization  of  the  century  in  which  we  live  is 
something  widely  different  from  this.  Its  tendency  is  to 
the  intellectual  and  moral  elevation,  not  of  a  favored  few, 
but  of  the  whole  people.  Yet  recognizing  the  undeniable 
truth  that  before  the  mind  can  be  cultivated  or  improved, 
the  body  must  be  provided  for,  it  encourages  and  recom¬ 
penses  with  honor  every  honest  effort  to  ameliorate  the 
physical  condition  of  the  race.  It  accordingly  esteems 
the  man  who  succeeds  in  making  two  blades  of  grass 
grow  where  one  grew  before  as  a  greater  benefactor  of 
his  countrymen,  than  the  general  who  wins  a  battle  or 
the  conqueror  who  subdues  an  empire.  And  extending 
this  principle,  it  bestows  the  same  honorable  commenda¬ 
tion  upon  every  one  who  contrives  by  whatever  instru¬ 
mentality  to  produce  in  increased  abundance  any  article 


14  MODERN  AND  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION  CONTRASTED. 

capable  of  contributing  to  the  sustenance  or  the  comfort 
of  man,  and  of  thus  promoting  the  general  welfare. 

Under  the  influence  of  such  a  civilization,  the  power 
of  invention  is  naturally  stimulated  to  a  high  degree  of 
activity.  And  accordingly,  our  age  is  the  age  of  the 
inventor’s  triumphs.  This  truth  becomes  strikingly  mani¬ 
fest  when  we  consider  how  many  names  there  are  of  men 
now  living  or  of  men  who  have  been  living  within  the 
last  one  hundred  years,  which  are  destined  to  be  held 
forever  in  grateful  remembrance  for  their  contributions  to 
the  improvement  of  the  useful  arts ;  and  how  brief  is  the 
list  of  similar  benefactors  of  mankind  which  can  be  gath¬ 
ered  from  the  history  of  all  the  preceding  centuries. 
Watt,  Arkwright,  Roberts,  Jacquard,  Whitney,  Wedg¬ 
wood,  Fulton,  Stevenson,  Fourdrinier,  Howe,  McCor¬ 
mick,  Whitworth,  Siemens,  Fairbairn,  Bessemer,  Apple- 
garth,  Hoe,  Bullock,  Hirn,  Ericsson,  Morse,  Hughes — 
I  mentioned  but  a  few  to  illustrate  the  readiness  with 
which  names  rise  to  the  lips  ;  while  if  we  go  back  beyond 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  we  find  but  here  and 
there  a  scattering  example,  such  as  Gutenberg,  Palissy, 
or  Huntsman;  and  earlier  than  the  fifteenth  we  find  none 
at  all. 

The  recognition  of  the  dignity  of  labor,  so  distinctive 
of  our  time,  has  been  the  result  of  no  sudden  change  in 
the  mutual  relations  of  the  different  classes  of  society. 
Revolutions  in  matters  of  sentiment  are  never  sudden,  but 
always  involve  and  often  largely  involve  the  element  of 
time.  This  is  even  true  in  matters  of  mere  opinion;  for 


INDUSTRY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


15 


though  individuals  may  be  found  impressible  by  argument, 
or  may  spontaneously  abandon  erroneous  views,  the 
instance  is  not  on  record  in  which  a  whole  community  has 
become  convinced  of  error  in  a  day.  Prejudices  are  laid 
aside  with  much  greater  difficulty  than  opinions.  It  is 
probable  that  the  prejudices  of  a  people  are  never  in  a 
proper  sense  eradicated.  They  die  out,  if  they  disappear 
at  all,  in  measure  as  the  individuals  who  entertain  them 
pass  away,  and  give  place  to  others  who  are  less  strongly 
biased. 


INDUSTRY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

During  the  middle  ages,  in  Europe,  the  state  of  industry 
was  materially  superior  to  that  which  prevailed  under  the 
Roman  Empire.  Certain  changes,  chiefly  social,  but  to 
some  extent  political,  crept  in  during  this  later  period,  by 
which  the  condition  of  the  industrial  classes  was  affected, 
in  some  respects  favorably,  and  in  others  injuriously,  the 
advantage  on  the  whole  being  on  the  favorable  side.  The 
several  trades  became  organized  into  societies  for  mutual 
protection  and  assistance.  And  their  growing  prosperity 
suggested  to  monarchs  and  their  ministers  of  finance  the 
expediency  of  lending  them  encouragement  by  way  of 
strengthening  the  revenues  of  the  State.  Thus  in  France, 
under  Louis  XIV.,  the  organized  trades,  or  communes ,  were 
admitted  to  the  enjoyment  of  certain  political  privileges 
under  the  name  of  “  the  third  estate.”  In  other  parts  of 
Europe,  as  in  Holland,  in  Upper  and  Middle  Italy,  and  in 


16 


INDUSTRY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


portions  of  Germany,  they  attained  temporary  advantages 
of  still  greater  importance ;  but  these,  through  the  jealousy 
as  well  of  monarchs  as  of  feudal  chiefs,  were  soon  wrested 
from  them,  and  they  were  long  subjected  to  heavy  exac¬ 
tions  ;  while  the  severe  regulations  by  which  their  freedom 
was  trammeled,  repressed  almost  wholly  the  spirit  of  im¬ 
provement.  Even  so  wise  a  minister  as  Colbert  gave  his 
sanction  to  a  system  which  held  society  while  it  lasted  as 
if  in  a  cast-iron  mould,  making  trades  hereditary  in  families 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  prohibiting  any  one 
from  the  practice  of  any  art  save  that  to  which  he  was 
born. 

It  was,  however,  a  great  advance  toward  the  recogni¬ 
tion  of  the  dignity  of  labor,  when  kings  and  ministers  and 
barons  contended  as  to  the  place  to  be  assigned  in  the 
political  and  social  system  to  the  organized  industries.  In 
this  contention  the  common  sense  of  mankind  could  not 
fail  to  enlist  itself  more  and  more  on  the  side  of  liberality ; 
still,  complete  emancipation  from  the  artificial  shackles 
by  which  the  freedom  of  industry  was  trammeled  was 
never  obtained,  up  to  the  time  when  the  outbursting 
storm  of  the  first  French  revolution  subverted  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  the  whole  social  system  of  continental  Europe,  and 
“  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  ”  became  the  watchwords 
of  the  hour.  Then,  in  the  chaos  that  succeeded,  old  things 
passed  away  and  all  things  became  new.  When  at  length 
the  troubled  elements  became  again  composed,  industry, 
respected  in  the  persons  of  its  representatives,  and  freed 
from  most  of  the  embarrassments  which  had  impeded  its 


INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE  UPON  INDUSTRIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  17 


development  before,  entered  upon  that  career  of  wonderful 
expansion  of  which  the  accumulated  results  astonish  us 
to-day. 


INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE  UPON  INDUSTRIAL  IMPROVEMENT. 

I  mentioned  above,  as  the  second  of  the  important  in¬ 
fluences  accelerating,  in  our  da}7,  the  progress  of  industrial 
improvement,  the  stimulating  influence  of  contemporane¬ 
ous  scientific  investigation.  It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that 
nearly  every  important  improvement  which  has  been 
made  during  the  last  one  hundred  years  in  the  processes 
or  the  instrumentalities  employed  in  the  industrial  arts, 
has  been  due  directly  or  indirectly  to  the  suggestions  of 
science.  Examples  illustrative  of  this  truth  are  so 
abundant  that,  in  a  great  exhibition  like  the  present,  we 
encounter  them  wherever  we  look.  Nay,  it  is  not  neces¬ 
sary  to  this  end  to  visit  a  gallery  of  industry.  We  see 
examples  all  around  us,  in  the  public  streets  and  at  home 
in  our  own  dwellings ;  many  of  them  indeed  so  familiar 
that  we  forget  the  source  to  which  we  owe  them.  A 
friction  match,  for  instance,  appears  to  us  a  very  trivial 
thing ;  and  yet  it  is  a  gift  of  science,  and  withal  a  very 
recent  gift,  since  in  the  year  in  which  this  Institute  was 
founded,  the  world  had  no  friction  matches.  The  gas, 
which  is  now  so  almost  universally  used  for  the  artificial 
lighting  of  towns  and  dwellings,  is  another  gift  which 
science  has  conferred  on  industry,  and  conferred  since  this 
century  began.  And  since  the  subject  of  illumination  has 


18  INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE  UPON  INDUSTRIAL  IMPROVEMENT. 


presented  itself,  though  chosen  entirely  at  random,  there 
are  also  to  be  mentioned  stearine  and  paraffine,  the  oil 
expressed  from  lard,  kerosene  distilled  from  petroleum, 
and  finally,  and  more  striking  still,  the  powerful  electric 
lamp  adopted  by  France  and  England  in  their  first-class 
sea-coast  light-houses,  all  of  these  being  contributions 
made  in  recent  years  by  science  to  the  useful  arts. 

Take,  again,  the  case  of  india-rubber.  There  are  many 
persons  here  present  whose  memory  extends  to  the  time 
when  this  substance,  now  so  valuable,  had  no  higher  use 
than  that  which  gives  it  its  name — to  efface  pencil-marks 
on  paper.  Its  present  applications  are  so  various  as 
almost  to  defy  enumeration.  Among  the  most  familiar 
of  the  articles  into  which  it  enters  may  be  mentioned 
water-proof  garments,  portable  beds,  cushions,  life-pre¬ 
servers,  elastic  tissues,  machine-belts,  buffers  for  railroad 
cars,  foot-mats,  floor-coverings  ;  and,  in  the  solidified  form, 
knife  and  instrument  handles,  door-knobs,  drinking- vessels, 
writing-desks,  jewel-boxes,  combs,  pen-holders,  musical 
instruments,  and  a  multitude  of  other  articles,  for  the  con¬ 
struction  of  which  it  is  better  adapted  than  any  other 
material  on  account  of  its  unalterability  by  either  heat  or 
moisture.  For  the  vast  improvements  of  the  present 
century  in  the  manufacture  of  paper  we  are  once  more 
deeply  indebted  to  modern  science.  This  is  true  in  too 
many  particulars  to  admit  here  of  detail,  in  the  prepara¬ 
tion  of  the  pulp,  in  the  expeditious  processes  of  bleaching, 
and  in  the  wonderfully  ingenious  machinery  by  which  the 
product  is  turned  out  finished,  in  sheets  practically  endless. 


INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE  UPON  INDUSTRIAL  IMPROVEMENT.  19 


Look  again  at  the  marvelous  fertility  in  useful  applica¬ 
tions  of  the  galvanoplastic  art — an  art  presented  by 
science  to  industry,  perfect  from  the  very  beginning :  and 
requiring  of  the  ingenuity  of  inventors  only  to  devise  the 
means  of  adapting  it  to  different  conditions.  Galvano- 
plasty  has  not  only  superseded  all  the  old  and  slow  and 
unhealthy  processes  of  silvering  and  gilding,  the  use  for 
which  it  was  first  made  available  as  a  branch  of  industry, 
but  it  has  contributed  at  some  point  or  other  to  the  ad¬ 
vancement  of  nearly  every  useful  art.  Printing  and 
engraving  furnish  signal  examples  of  its  usefulness.  It 
affords  a  simple  and  easy  means  of  giving  to  movable  type 
and  to  stereotype  plates  a  facing  of  copper,  or,  in  the 
later  improvements,  even  of  iron;  whereby  their  dura¬ 
bility  is  immensely  increased.  The  service  it  has  rendered 
to  the  art  of  engraving,  whether  on  copper  or  on  wood,  is 
still  more  noteworthy.  Woodcut  engravings,  when  finely 
finished,  are  too  frail  to  bear  long,  without  injury,  the 
severe  treatment  they  receive  under  the  letter  press.  The 
delicacy  of  the  lines  is  soon  lost,  and  the  impression  ceases 
to  do  justice  to  the  skill  of  the  artist.  By  the  galvano¬ 
plastic  process,  a  copper  fac-simile  is  substituted  for  the 
original  wood-cut,  with  the  double  advantage  of  furnishing 
a  more  durable  material  and  of  retaining  the  power  to 
replace  the  copy  by  a  new  fac-simile  when  those  previ¬ 
ously  used  shall  fail.  The  same  expedient  is  resorted  to 
when  the  original  engraving  is  on  metal.  This  original 
is  only  employed  to  furnish  galvanoplastic  duplicates  for 
use  in  the  press;  so  that  when  an  engraving  is  once  made, 


20  INFLUENCE  OF  SCIENCE  UPON  INDUSTRIAL  IMPROVEMENT. 

its  durability  is  practically  unlimited.  All  the  large  and 
valuable  charts  of  the  American  Coast  Survey,  many  of 
them  embodying  the  results  of  immense  labor,  are  pro¬ 
duced  on  this  plan. 

But  time  will  not  allow  me  to  multiply  illustrations. 
I  will  merely  name,  without  pausing  to  go  into  details,  a 
few  of  the  departments  of  industry  not  above  mentioned, 
to  which  the  contributions  made  by  science  have  been 
most  signal.  There  is  the  metallurgic  industry,  for  in¬ 
stance,  which  has  been  profited  in  all  its  branches  ;  as 
the  metallurgy  of  iron,  of  copper,  of  zinc,  of  the  precious 
metals,  of  aluminium,  and  most  signal  of  all,  of  steel. 
There  is  the  manufacture  of  sugar,  from  the  cane  and 
from  the  beet,  and  the  process  of  its  subsequent  refine¬ 
ment,  the  whole  of  which  has  been  thoroughly  revolu¬ 
tionized  within  the  past  twenty  years.  There  are  the 
manufacture  of  leather,  the  silvering  of  mirrors,  the 
processes  of  bleaching  and  dyeing,  the  discovery  of  new 
dyes,  especially  of  the  magnificent  colors  called  aniline, 
the  manufacture  of  soda  ash,  the  power  printing  press, 
machine  spinning,  weaving,  knitting,  and  sewing,  the 
whole  family  of  machine  tools,  the  manufacture  of  brick 
and  tiles,  the  artificial  production  of  ice,  the  tunneling 
of  mountains  by  the  aid  of  power-drills  and  the  for¬ 
midable  explosives,  dynamite  and  nitro-glycerine,  the 
whole  system  of  modern  transportation  by  land  and  sea, 
and  telegraphic  communications  spanning  almost  instan¬ 
taneously  the  world’s  circumference  and  annihilating 
space.  I  pause  in  the  enumeration,  not  for  want  of 


SCIENCE  AND  INDUSTRY  IN  ANCIENT  TIMES. 


21 


material,  but  because  it  is  necessary  to  pause  somewhere. 
In  every  one  of  the  branches  of  industrial  art  here 
mentioned,  the  inventions  or  discoveries  which  give 
them  their  principal  usefulness  or  productive  power  have 
been  made  since  the  foundation  of  our  Government,  and 
most  of  them  quite  recently. 

SCIENCE  AND  INDUSTRY  IN  ANCIENT  TIMES. 

The  inquiry  naturally  arises,  why  did  not  science 
come  with  her  aid  to  industry  at  an  earlier  day  ?  Science 
is  the  creation  of  intellect,  and  intellect  was  actively 
awake  in  the  earliest  periods  of  history,  and  even  in 
periods  to  which  the  light  of  history  does  not  extend. 
We  have  already  spoken  of  Egypt,  and  of  the  evidence 
her  monuments  furnish  of  an  early  advanced  civilization. 
Mind  must  have  been  active  then.  The  Egyptians  must 
have  been  learned,  or  it  would  have  availed  little  to 
Moses  that  he  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians.  They  must  certainly  have  cultivated  letters. 
Probably  they  were  not  wholly  neglectful  of  science. 
Unquestionably  they  must  have  been  geometers  and 
engineers,  or  they  never  could  have  built  the  pyramids, 
or  raised  the  obelisks.  From  a  protracted  study  of  the 
great  pyramid  of  Cheops,  Admiral  Smyth  has  satisfied 
himself  that  they  were  also  astronomers,  and  pretty 
good  astronomers  too.  The  Chaldeans  and  the  Greeks 
of  Asia  Minor  cultivated  astronomy  also  twenty-five 
hundred  years  ago ;  and  it  is  asserted  of  Thales  of 


22 


SCIENCE  AND  INDUSTRY  IN  ANCIENT  TIMES. 


Miletus  that  he  predicted  eclipses  in  anticipation  of 
their  occurence,  some  centuries  before  the  golden  period  of 
Grecian  literature.  In  Alexandria,  under  the  Ptolemies, 
the  pure  mathematics  were  cultivated  so  successfully 
that  the  treatises  of  some  Alexandrian  mathematicians, 
as  of  Appollonius  and  Euclid,  are  held  in  respect  to 
this  day.  Euclid’s  Elements  of  Geometry  still,  indeed, 
maintain  a  place  among  the  text-books  of  English  and 
American  colleges.  During  the  same  period,  Eratos¬ 
thenes,  an  astronomer  of  Cyrene,  made  an  ingenious 
attempt  to  determine  the  dimensions  of  the  earth  by 
measuring  a  degree  of  the  meridian ;  with  what  success, 
our  ignorance  of  the  value  of  the  unit  of  length 
employed  by  him  makes  it  difficult  to  judge.  This, 
too,  was  the  age  of  the  illustrious  Archimedes,  a  physicist 
who  certainly  made  some  signal  discoveries  the  records 
of  which  are  lost ;  and  who  is  said,  in  the  history  of 
that  time,  to  have  accomplished  results  by  mechanical 
and  optical  arrangements,  which,  even  in  this  age,  would 
be  regarded  as  extraordinary.  Thus  we  see  that  science, 
and  even  the  sciences  of  nature,  occupied  the  minds 
of  men  in  periods  of  high  antiquity ;  and  we  know 
that,  during  the  same  periods,  literature  attained  to 
its  greatest  splendor  ;  speculative  jffiilosophy  especially, 
a  subject  demanding  the  exercise  of  the  loftiest  powers 
of  the  human  intellect,  having  been  cultivated  with  such 
success,  that  the  teachers  of  that  time  continue  still  to  be 
studied  with  profound  interest,  and  made  the  subject  of 
endless  discussion  and  criticism. 


ANCIENT  SCIENCE  WAS  NOT  PROGRESSIVE. 


23 


ANCIENT  SCIENCE  WAS  NOT  PROGRESSIVE. 

How  then  happened  it  that  for  twenty  centuries — if 
we  count  from  the  Egyptian  epoch  we  may  even  say  for 
fifty — science  brought  to  the  useful  arts  so  meagre  con¬ 
tributions,  while  in  this  last  age  of  ours  she  comes  laden 
down  with  gifts  every  succeeding  year  I  The  immediate 
answer  which  presents  itself  is  that  science  herself  stood 
still  during  all  those  long  centuries.  This  answer,  though 
obvious  enough,  is  unsatisfactory,  since  it  only  removes  the 
difficulty  one  step  further  back,  and  compels  us  to  inquire 
why  science  should  have  been  stationary  so  long,  and  why 
she  has  been  less  so  in  later  times.  For  this  phenomenon, 
unaccountable  as  it  seems  at  first,  we  find  an  explanation 
when  we  turn  our  attention  to  the  methods  of  investiga¬ 
tion  employed  by  ancient  and  modern  inquirers  respec¬ 
tively  in  the  prosecution  of  their  researches.  We  find  the 
modern  methods  to  be  such  as,  if  faithfully  pursued,  must 
in  the  necessity  of  things,  lead  eventually  to  substantial 
and  trustworthy  results.  The  ancient,  on  the  contrary, 
are  much  more  likely  to  bewilder  and  lead  astray,  than 
to  conduct  to  the  truth.  Such  discoveries,  therefore,  in 
the  sciences  of  nature,  as  were  made  in  antiquity,  unless 
in  the  case  of  some  man  of  exceptional  sagacity,  like 
Archimedes  who  seems  to  have  escaped  the  mental  ten¬ 
dencies  of  his  age,  were  usually  accidental ;  and  were 
hardly  ever  the  legitimate  rewards  of  direct  inquiry.  It 
is  worth  while  to  explain  the  difference. 

Modern  investigation  then  begins  with  simple  facts, 
and  takes  exact  note  of  what  the  facts  are.  It  assumes 


24 


THE  DEDUCTIVE  METHOD. 


that  these  facts  exist  in  obedience  to  some  law,  at  present 
unknown,  which  makes  their  existence  necessary.  And 
it  assumes  that  if  we  multiply  observations  of  analogous 
facts  under  varying  conditions,  we  shall  at  length  detect 
the  nature  of  this  law.  This  method  is  called  the  induc¬ 
tive  method  of  research.  It  was  by  means  of  it  that  the 
illustrious  Newton  detected  the  great  law  which  governs 
the  mechanism  of  the  heavens.  His  induction  was  brief, 
but  it  was  conclusive.  He  observed  that  falling  bodies 
at  the  surface  of  the  earth  tend  everywhere  toward  the 
centre.  He  observed  that  all  such  bodies  falling  from  a 
state  of  rest  fall  precisely  the  same  distance  in  a  given 
interval  of  time,  as  for  instance  a  second.  He  observed 
that  the  moon  also  falls  continually  toward  the  earth — 
that  is,  that  she  deviates  from  the  tangent  to  her  orbit 
every  second  by  a  space  which  would  be  a  space  fallen  if 
she  were  not  moving  in  an  orbit.  He  ascertained  by 
astronomical  methods  the  distance  of  the  moon,  and  com¬ 
puted  the  amount  of  this  fall.  Now,  supposing  that  all 
these  observed  phenomena  are  due  to  a  common  cause, 
the  question  to  be  settled  is,  what  is  the  law  according  to 
which  this  cause  acts.  The  data  suffice  to  determine  this 
law ;  and  when  it  is  subsequently  tested  by  being  applied 
to  the  motions  of  other  celestial  bodies,  their  uniform  ac¬ 
cordance  with  it  corroborates  its  truth. 

THE  DEDUCTIVE  METHOD. 

The  ancients,  on  the  other  hand,  pursued  their  inquiries 
after  a  method  which  may  be  called  the  deductive ;  that 


THE  DEDUCTIVE  METHOD. 


25 


is  to  say,  they  began  by  laying  down  general  principles, 
and  then  proceeded  to  deduce  conclusions  by  logic.  As 
we  have  illustrated  the  former  method  by  taking  the  ex¬ 
ample  of  astronomy,  the  comparison  may  best  be  made 
by  employing  the  same  example  with  this.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  what  we  have  to  account  for  is  the  celestial 
motions.  We  begin  by  assuming  that  as  the  celestial 
system  is  the  immediate  work  of  the  author  of  nature,  it 
must  necessarily  be  perfect  in  all  its  arrangements.  Hence 
its  motions  must  be  perfect.  Now,  in  regard  to  motion, 
it  must  be  noted  that  motion  is  of  various  kinds,  as 
uniform,  variable,  rectilinear,  curvilinear,  zigzag,  &c.,  &c. 
All  these  kinds  of  motion  cannot  be  perfect.  From  the 
nature  of  things  it  is  evident  that  perfect  motion  must  be 
uniform  and  circular.  Hence  the  motions  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  are  uniform  and  circular ;  and  thus  the  fundamental 
law  of  celestial  mechanics  is  established.  It  differs  from 
Newton’s  law,  and  it  has  the  misfortune  of  not  being  true; 
but  the  astronomers  of  Alexandria  enjoyed  the  high  satis¬ 
faction  of  knowing  that  it  ought  to  be  true,  and  therefore 
they  believed  it.  This  law,  however,  became  to  them  at 
once  a  formidable  obstacle  in  the  way  of  astronomical 
progress,  for  it  saddled  them  with  a  multitude  of  artificial 
difficulties,  with  which  they  struggled  long;  attaining, 
moreover,  in  the  end,  only  a  very  equivocal  success.  Thus, 
taking  the  earth  as  the  center  of  the  universe,  a  truth 
which  they  regarded  as  self-evident,  and  observing  that 
the  planets  do  not,  in  appearance  at  least,  move  uniformly, 
they  proceeded  to  build  up  a  monstrous  geometrical  theory 


26 


THE  INDUCTIVE  METHOD  TARDILY  ADOPTED. 


to  reconcile  facts  with  appearances — a  theory  which  new 
observations  continued  constantly  to  falsify,  and  which  we 
know  now  cannot,  by  any  modification,  be  made  to  repre¬ 
sent  the  truth. 

Chemistry,  physics,  physiology,  and  every  other 
branch  of  natural  science  were  all  darkened,  befogged 
and  shackled  by  similar  arbitrary  assumptions.  Even 
long  before  the  inductive  method  had  been  adopted  and 
successfully  practiced  by  Galileo,  Kepler,  Torricelli 
and  Huyghens,  it  continued  to  be  taught,  as  we  find 
set  forth  in  the  u  Margarita  Philosophica  ”  of  Reisch, 
the  compendium  of  the  scholastic  science  of  the  six¬ 
teenth  century,  that  four  elements  only  enter  into  the 
composition  of  all  material  things,  viz. :  fire,  air,  earth 
and  water;  and  that  the  palpable  qualities  of  things 
are  but  fourteen,  four  primary  and  ten  secondary, 
which  are  expressed  by  the  words  hot,  cold,  moist  and 
dry,  for  the  primary ;  and  slippery,  harsh,  dense,  subtle, 
hard,  soft,  rough,  smooth,  heavy,  light,  for  the  secondary ; 
to  which,  under  the  name  of  impalpable  qualities,  were 
added  colors,  sounds,  tastes  and  odors.  It  will  easily  be 
understood  what  progress  chemistry  could  make  in  the 
attempt  to  reason  out  the  composition  of  particular 
things,  starting  from  data  like  these. 


THE  INDUCTIVE  METHOD  TARDILY  ADOPTED. 

What  has  thus  far  been  said,  may  be  true  as  far  as 
it  goes ;  and  yet  it  does  not  entirely  solve  the  original 


THE  INDUCTIVE  METHOD  TAKDILY  ADOPTED. 


27 


difficulty,  but  rather  seems  to  set  it  backward  a  second 
step.  How  happens  it,  we  may  ask,  that  the  inductive 
method  of  research,  recommending  itself  as  it  does, 
when  once  explained,  to  the  common  sense  of  all 
mankind,  how  happens  it  that  this  method  was  so 
long  in  securing  the  recognition  of  philosophers  as 
the  true  method  of  investigating  nature  I  The  solution 
of  this  new  difficulty  seems  to  be  found  in  the  following 
considerations.  When  men  first  began  to  meditate  the 
problems  presented  in  the  universe,  the  questions  which 
earliest  and  most  deeply  impressed  them  were  those 
relating  to  the  mystery  of  existence,  to  the  origin  of 
matter  rather  than  to  its  properties,  to  the  intimate 
essence  of  things  rather  than  to  their  outward  phe¬ 
nomena.  It  was,  therefore,  in  the  discussions  of  specu¬ 
lative  philosophy  that  the  mental  habits  of  the  earliest 
profound  thinkers  were  formed  ;  and  in  such  discussions 
it  seems  inevitable  that  the  form  of  reasoning  shall  be 
by  deduction  from  general  principles  to  particular  con¬ 
clusions.  The  habits  formed  in  philosophical  specula¬ 
tion  would  naturally  be  confirmed  by  the  investigations 
of  abstract  mathematics,  since  these  set  out  from  axioms 
and  exact  definitions ;  and  it  was  all  but  inevitable 
that  the  mathematics  should  precede  physics  in  the 
early  order  of  inquiry,  since  it  is  among  the  first  necessities 
of  civilization  to  require  some  system  of  mensuration  of 
lines,  surfaces  and  solids,  and  since  mensuration  exacts 
a  knowledge  of  geometry.  The  tenacity  with  which 
mental  habits  once  established  maintain  themselves, 


28 


RESULTS  OF  THE  INDUCTIVE  METHOD. 


is  well  known.  Whether  the  emancipation  of  the 
sciences  of  nature  from  the  tyranny  of  such  habits 
would  have  been  delayed  down  to  the  sixteenth  century 
of  our  era,  had  no  eclipse  come  over  the  early  culture 
of  Greece  and  Italy,  may  be  reasonably  doubted  ;  but, 
after  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire  in  the  fifth  century, 
all  literary  and  scientific  progress  was  practically  arrested 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  Even  with  the  revival 
of  letters,  moreover,  science  scarcely  began  to  revive 
before  she  encountered  difficulties  and  discouragements 
before  unknown,  born  of  the  superstition  of  the  time — 
a  superstition  which  looked  upon  each  new  discovery 
as  something  monstrous  and  criminal,  due  to  Satanic 
agency ;  and  menaced  the  discoverer  with  the  dungeons 
and  flames  of  the  Inquisition. 

RESULTS  OF  THE  INDUCTIVE  METHOD. 

It  is  common  to  ascribe  to  Lord  Bacon  the  modern 
revolution  in  the  methods  of  investigation,  and  the 
origination  of  the  inductive  philosophy.  But  this  is 
hardly  consistent  with  the  fact  that  the  inductive  method 
had  been  already  fully  inaugurated  by  Brahe,  Kepler, 
Galileo,  and  perhaps  others,  many  years  before  the 
publication  of  the  “  Novum  Organon,”  which  it  is  hardly 
probable  that  any  of  them  ever  saw.  It  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind,  nevertheless,  than  even  after  the  inauguration 
of  this  method,  by  whomsoever  introduced,  the  advance 
of  science  could  not  but  be,  for  a  certain  length  of  time, 


INCREASE  OF  PRODUCTIVE  POWER- 


29 


of  necessity  slow.  The  whole  field  lay  before  the  inves¬ 
tigators  substantially  unexplored,  the  most  elementary 
truths  in  each  branch  of  science  were  yet  to  be  ascertained, 
the  pioneers  were  few  in  number  and  the  discouragements 
they  met  with  were  great.  It  is  in  the  natural  course  of 
things,  moreover,  that  investigation  should  be  more,  pro¬ 
ductive  of  results  as  it  is  prosecuted  further ;  and  in  the 
combination  of  these  reasons  may  be  found  the  explanation 
of  the  fact  that  a  movement  which  began  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  almost  imperceptibly,  and  which  in  the  eighteenth 
had  hardly  become  sufficiently  marked  to  attract  general 
attention,  has  in  our  time  become  the  rush  of  a  mighty 
current  forming  the  most  salient  phenomenon  of  the  civi¬ 
lization  of  the  age.  And  as  science  has  advanced,  so 
industry  has  with  equal  step  kept  pace  beside  her.  Each 
new  discovery  has  created  a  new  art  or  improved  an  old 
one ;  till  looking  through  the  whole  extent  of  the  industrial 
world,  we  scarcely  encounter  a  machine,  or  a  process,  or 
a  product,  or  an  implement,  which  is  not  a  form  of  applied 
science ;  and  we  find  the  laboratory  and  the  workshop  to  be 
so  intimately  allied,  that  fully  to  understand  either  science 
or  the  arts,  one  must  be  familiar  with  both.  In  the 
laboratory  we  have  the  arts  in  embryo;  in  the  workshop 
we  have  science  in  application. 

INCREASE  OF  PRODUCTIVE  POWER. 

Let  me  conclude  this  part  of  my  subject  by  adducing 
two  or  three  examples  illustrative  of  the  practical  effect 


30 


INCREASE  OF  PRODUCTIVE  POWER. 


of  this  association  of  science  with  industry,  in  the  increase 
of  productive  power.  And  first  in  order,  I  call  your  at¬ 
tention  to  the  manufacture  of  steel,  an  example  which  is 
entitled  to  be  first  presented,  both  because  of  the  tran¬ 
scendent  importance  of  this  great  industry,  and  because 
its  wonderful  development  through  the  improvement  of 
its  processes,  has  taken  place,  as  we  may  almost  say,  under 
our  own  eyes,  and  has  gone  on  with  a  rapidity  which, 
even  in  the  midst  of  industrial  wonders,  is  exceptional. 
Thirty  years  ago  the  power  of  this  branch  of  metallurgy 
was  limited  to  the  production  of  masses  not  exceeding  two 
or  three  hundred  pounds  in  weight.  Now  a  single  Besse¬ 
mer  converter  will  produce,  at  each  operation,  six,  eight, 
ten,  or  even  twelve  tons.  By  the  puddling  process,  masses 
of  more  than  forty  tons  have  been  produced.  At  Essen, 
in  Prussia,  a  single  establishment  devoted  to  this  manu¬ 
facture  occupies  an  area  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  acres, 
one-fourth  of  which  is  under  cover;  and  in  1866  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  steel  at  this  establishment  alone  amounted  to 
sixty-one  thousand  tons,  exceeding  the  tortal  production 
of  the  world  fifteen  years  before. 

The  inventions  of  Hargreaves  and  Arkwright  for 
spinning  cotton  are  now  about  one  hundred  years  old. 
They  were  produced  in  consequence  of  the  inadequacy  of 
the  process  of  spinning  by  hand  to  supply  yarns  for  the 
looms  then  in  use,  all  of  which  were  hand  looms..  The 
immediate  result  was  a  great  excess  of  supply.  The 
looms  could  not  consume  the  yarns  produced,  and  the 
natural  consequence  which  followed  was  the  invention  of 


INCREASE  OF  PRODUCTIVE  POWER. 


31 


the  power  loom.  At  present,  a  single  operative,  superin¬ 
tending  an  Arkwright  machine,  accomplishes  the  work” 
previously  done  by  three  hundred  or  four  hundred ;  and 
the  production  of  woven  tissues  is  increased  in  the  same 
ratio.  Of  printed  stuffs  alone,  there  are  manufactured  in 
the  single  town  of  Manchester  between  forty  and  fifty 
millions  of  yards  annually — enough  to  encircle  the  entire 
circumference  of  the  earth.  Printing  was  performed  by 
hand  until  after  the  beginning  of  this  century,  some  three 
hundred  or  four  hundred  impressions  per  hour  being  all 
that  two  men,  working  at  a  single  press,  could  produce. 
The  first  automatic  press,  put  in  operation  about  1812, 
increased  the  rapidity  of  production  to  more  than  one 
thousand  per  hour.  Subsequent  improvements  carried 
the  performance  up  to  four  thousand.  In  the  presses 
thus  far,  the  type  were  carried  upon  a  horizontal  bed. 
About  thirty  years  ago  Mr.  Hoe,  of  this  city,  by  trans¬ 
ferring  the  form  to  the  cylinder,  effected  an  extraordinary 
advance,  his  largest  presses  delivering,  at  need,  no  less 
than  twenty  thousand  impressions  per  hour.  These  are 
impressions  made  on  one  side  of  the  sheet  only.  The 
Bullock  press,  invented  but  five  or  six  years  ago,  and 
shown  in  operation  in  this  hall  at  the  Exhibition  of  the 
Institute  of  1870,  is  capable  of  printing  on  both  sides  of 
the  paper,  with  perfect  register,  at  one  operation,  and 
produces  nearly  thirty  thousand  impressions,  or  fifteen 
thousand  sheets  printed  on  both  sides  per  hour.  The 
increase  of  productive  power  over  the  common  hand-press 
is  in  a  ratio  of  sixty  or  one  hundred  to  one.  By  means 


32 


AMERICA  IN  THE  CONCOURSE  OF  INDUSTRIES. 


of  the  machine-planer  for  wood,  the  rapidity  with  which 
work  is  turned  out  is  increased  in  the  ratio  of  twenty  or 
thirty  to  one,  with  a  vast  improvement  in  the  accuracy 
of  the  work.  With  the  planer  for  metals  the  gain  is  im¬ 
measurably  greater.  Similar  remarks  may  be  made  of 
the  machines  for  morticing  and  dove-tailing,  and  of  the 
band-saws  for  the  execution  of  scroll-work,  which  have 
attracted  so  much  attention  in  our  late  exhibitions,  and 
will  do  so  in  the  present. 

The  sewing-machine  is  an  illustration  of  the  increase 
of  productive  power  which  is  in  every  household,  and  its 
wonderful  capabilities  are  universally  known.  But  I 
need  not  multiply  examples.  To  exhaust  the  list  of 
available  illustrations  would  be  impossible,  for  it  is  practi¬ 
cally  inexhaustible. 

AMERICA  IN  THE  CONCOURSE  OF  INDUSTRIES. 

In  conclusion,  the  inquiry  naturally  presents  itself — 
where  are  we,  the  industrials  of  the  United  States,  in 
this  great  concourse  of  nations,  and  what  is  the  part 
which  we  are  contributing  to  the  march  of  industrial 
improvement  ?  The  reply,  I  believe,  will  be  one  of  which 
we  need  not  be  ashamed.  There  is  hardly  an  industry  to 
the  progress  of  which  we  have  not  largely  contributed. 
The  cotton-gin,  without  which  the  machine-spinner  and 
the  power-loom  would  be  helpless,  is  American.  The 
power-shuttle,  which  permits  an  unlimited  enlargement 
of  the  breadth  of  the  web,  is  American.  The  planing- 


AMERICA  IN  THE  CONCOURSE  OF  INDUSTRIES. 


33 


machine  is  American.  Navigation  by  steam  is  American. 
The  mower  and  reaper  are  American.  The  rotary  print¬ 
ing-presses  are  American.  The  hot-air  engine  is  Ameri¬ 
can.  The  sewing-machine  is  American.  The  machine 
manufacture  of  wool  cards  is  American.  The  whole  india- 
rubber  industry  is  American.  The  band-saw  originated, 
I  believe,  in  America.  The  machine  manufacture  of 
horseshoes  is  American.  The  sand  blast,  of  which  the 
large  capabilities  are  yet  to  be  developed,  is  American. 
The  gauge  lathe  is  American.  The  only  successful  com¬ 
posing-machine  for  printers  is  American.  The  grain 
elevator  is  American.  The  artificial  manufacture  of  ice, 
which  you  saw  exhibited  here  two  years  ago  under  the 
name  of  the  Carre  process,  was  originally  invented  by 
Prof.  Alexander  S.  Twining,  an  American.  The  electro¬ 
magnet  was  invented,  and  immediately  after  its  invention 
was  first  practically  applied  in  transmitting  telegraphic 
signals,  by  Prof.  Joseph  Henry,  an  American.  The 
telegraphic  instrument  introduced  a  few  years  later  into 
public  use,  which  has  since  obtained  universal  acceptance, 
was  invented  by  Prof.  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  late  one  of 
the  Regents  of  our  Institute,  an  American. 

At  the  Universal  Exposition  of  1867,  although  the  space 
allotted  to  our  country  was  limited,  and  our  industry 
was  very  inadequately  represented,  two  things  were  re¬ 
markable.  In  the  first  place,  the  number  of  awards  for 
merit  made  to  American  exhibitors  was  greater  in  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  whole  number  of  competitors  than  was 
true  of  any  other  country  except  France — more  than 


34 


BENEFITS  OF  INTERNATIONAL  EXPOSITIONS. 


half  the  exhibitors  having  been  successful  in  obtaining 
such  distinctions.  Secondly,  the  notices  of  the  American 
department  of  the  Exposition  by  foreign  critics  were 
numerous,  and  were  invariably  complimentary  in  a  very 
high  degree.  Our  machines  for  working  in  metal  and  in 
wood  were  especially  commended;  and  what  was  par¬ 
ticularly  remarked  about  them  was  their  novelty  and 
their  originality.  On  this  point  the  reporter  of  the 
London  Engineering  was  especially  emphatic.  He  observed 
that  European  engineers  had  come  to  regard  America  as 
4  the  natural  home  and  native  land”  of  wood- working 
machinery;  since  the  United  States  had  furnished  the 
first  models  of  the  most  important  wood-working  tools 
in  general  use  in  Europe,  and  since  these  tools,  however 
modified  in  details,  still  preserve  everywhere  their  dis¬ 
tinctive  principles  and  main  features  of  construction  u  just 
as  they  were  transmitted  to  us  across  the  Atlantic.” 
And  he  asserts  that  British  and  continental  artisans  are 
accustomed,  whenever  a  new  desideratum  in  wood-working 
machinery  makes  itself  felt,  to  look  to  America  to  furnish 
the  desired  relief;  and  that  they  are  even  occasionally 
surprised  by  the  appearance  of  a  new  tool  from  the 
“States”  before  they  are  aware  that  they  want  it;  though 
they  very  soon  learn  to  appreciate  the  value  of  the  present 
after  giving  it  a  trial. 

BENEFITS  OF  INTERNATIONAL  EXPOSITIONS. 

And  now  let  me  ask  what  must  be  the  effect  of  notices 
like  these,  widely  circulated  throughout  England  and  the 
whole  continent  of  Europe,  upon  the  substantial  interests 


BENEFITS  OF  INTERNATIONAL  EXPOSITIONS. 


35 


of'  our  country  1  I  say  the  substantial  interests,  though 
I  am  not  insensible  to  the  concomitant  advantages 
which  may  be  more  properly  called  sentimental;  the 
increased  respect  which  such  displays,  and  such  critical 
judgments  pronounced  upon  them,  must  secure  for  us  an 
intelligent  people,  and  a  people  among  whom  intelligence 
is  honored;  but  I  say  the  substantial  interests,  meaning 
thereby  the  enlargement  of  the  demand  for  our  produc¬ 
tions,  involving  as  natural  consequences  the  increase  of 
our  foreign  commerce,  the  growth  of  our  manufactures, 
and  the  more  rapid  development  of  our  vast  natural 
resources  still  unimproved.  This  exposition  was  visited, 
first  or  last,  by  more  than  ten  millions  of  people.*  These 
notices  were  read,  doubtless,  by  several  millions.  And 
these  visitors  and  these  readers  were  of  every  kindred 
and  people  and  tongue  and  nation  under  the  sun.  Is  it 
nothing  to  bring  purchasers  directly  into  contact  with 
the  articles  they  need  1  Is  it  nothing  to  bring  in¬ 
dustrials  into  the  immediate  presence  of  machines  or 

*Mr.  Chevalier,  editor  of  the  official  reports  of  the  juries  of  the  Universal 
Exposition  of  1867,  gives  the  following  as  the  numbers  of  the  persons  admitted 
to  the  several  successive  international  Expositions,  beginning  with  that  held 
in  1851,  in  London,  viz: 


YEAR. 

PAYING  VISITORS. 

WHERE  HELD. 

1851 

6,039,000 

London. 

1855 

5,162,000 

Paris. 

1862 

6,211,000 

London. 

1867 

9,921,686 

Paris. 

In  this  last  total  are  counted  5,500  season  tickets,  and  90,000  tickets  giving- 
admission  for  a  week.  Mr.  Chevalier  thinks  these  last  may  be  counted  equal 
to  three  admissions  at  least ;  so  that  the  total  exceeds  ten  millions,  as  stated 
above.  To  the  number  of  visitors  may  very  properly  be  added  the  number  of 
exhibitors  who  were  admitted  free.  This  number  was,  iu  1867,50,226;  and 
their  assistants  were  more  numerous  than  themselves.  To  put  the  total  num¬ 
ber  of  all  who  saw  the  Exposition  at  10,000,000,  is  therefore  a  statement  con¬ 
siderably  within  bounds. 


36 


THE  VIENNA  EXPOSITION. 


implements  or  materials  which  reveal  to  them  at  the  first 
glance  new  sources  of  power  1  Since  it  is  self  evidently 
true  that  no  industry  can  work  its  way  upward  unless  it 
is  known  of  those  whom  it  is  adapted  to  benefit ;  since, 
therefore,  extensive  advertising  is  admitted  to  be  an 
essential  condition  of  every  industrial  success,  what  pos¬ 
sible  expedient  can  be  conceived  better  adapted  to  create 
expeditiously  a  demand  for  any  article  having  in  it  merit 
enough  to  recommend  itself,  than  that  of  placing  it  before 
the  world  in  a  great  international  exposition  1 

THE  VIENNA  EXPOSITION. 

I  press  this  point  a  little  now,  for  a  special  reason.  In 
accordance  with  a  purpose  publicly  announced  by  the 
Emperor  of  Austria  two  or  three  years  ago,  a  new  inter¬ 
national  industrial  exposition  is  to  be  opened  in  the  spring 
of  1873,  in  the  city  of  Vienna.  The  preparations  in  pro¬ 
gress  throughout  Europe  for  this  occasion,  indicate  that  in 
point  of  grandeur,  the  coming  display  will  surpass  all  that 
have  gone  before;  even  that  of  Paris  in  1867,  which 
covered  an  area  of  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres, 
while  its  principal  building  occupied  nearly  forty.  Six 
millions  of  dollars  have  been  appropriated  by  the  Austrian 
Government  for  the  preliminary  expenses.  The  other 
European  governments  are  making  appropriations  for  the 
transportation  and  installation  of  the  objects  which  are  to 
represent  their  several  industries.  Italy  is  said  to  have 
appropriated  to  this  object  the  liberal  sum  of  two  million 
of  francs.  The  Congress  of  the  United  States  has  as  yet 


THE  VIENNA  EXPOSITION. 


37 


appropriated  nothing.  Nor  has  this  neglect  been  a  con¬ 
sequence  of  oversight.  The  subject  has  been  brought  to 
the  attention  of  Congress,  and,  at  the  instance  of  the 
President,  authority  has  been  given  for  the  appointment 
of  a  Commissioner  to  represent  the  country  at  the  exposi¬ 
tion,  and  to  advise  and  assist  exhibitors  from  the  United 
States,  if  any  offer ;  but  with  the  condition  attached  that 
the  said  Commissioner  shall  serve  without  pay.  Is  this  a 
policy  worthy  of  a  great  nation  like  our  own  7  Is  it  a 
policy  in  harmony  with  the  true  interests  of  a  great  pro¬ 
ducing  people,  a  people  who  ought  to  aim,  sooner  or  later, 
to  hold  successful  competition  in  the  markets  of  the  world 
with  the  most  prolific  of  foreign  producers  7  Are  we  not 
willfully  suffering  an  opportunity  to  escape  of  adding,  by 
means  of  a  present  outlay  too  insignificant  to  deserve  a 
moment’s  consideration,  millions,  perhaps,  annually,  to 
the  increase  of  our  national  wealth  I  I  ask  these  questions 
because  the  indifference  of  Congress  to  this  important 
matter  hitherto,  justifies  the  apprehension  that  no  further 
action  from  that  body  is  to  be  expected.  I  ask  them, 
because  it  seems  to  me  that  the  people  themselves  ought 
to  be  stirred  up  upon  the  subject,  and  ought  to  make  their 
voices  heard  by  their  representatives  in  Washington. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  the  apathy  which  has 
always  manifested  itself  in  our  national  Legislature  in 
regard  to  these  efforts  of  the  nations  to  stimulate  indus¬ 
trial  improvement  by  mutual  encouragement,  and  by  the 
friendly  union  of  effort.  It  was  so  in  1851,  and  has  been 
so  ever  since.  In  1866,  preparatory  to  the  Exposition 


38 


THE  VIENNA  EXPOSITION. 


of  the  following  year,  through  the  earnest  efforts  of  citi¬ 
zens,  backed  by  the  cordial  cooperation  of  the  Executive 
Departments,  a  small  and  very  inadequate  appropriation 
was  made,  which,  under  the  pressure  of  similar  influences, 
was  in  the  following  session  somewhat  enlarged.  The 
aid  so  hesitatingly  given,  came,  unfortunately,  too  late  to 
secure  that  full  representation  of  American  industry 
which  was  felt  to  be  desirable ;  but  it  accomplished  the 
object  of  securing,  at  any  rate,  a  representation.  The 
danger  at  present  seems  to  be,  that  in  the  great  Exposi¬ 
tion  of  1873  we  shall  have  no  representation  at  all. 

The  members  of  our  Congress  do  not  always  show 
themselves  so  careless  when  the  cause  of  industry  is  in 
question.  Upon  propositions  of  labor  reform,  the  eight- 
hour  law,  and  so  on,  they  appear  to  be  sufficiently  awake 
and  prompt  enough  to  act.  Is  this  because  they  seem  to 
themselves  to  see  a  connection  between  the  eight-hour 
law  and  the  ballot-box '?  And  is  their  indifference  to  in¬ 
ternational  expositions  owing  to  the  fact  that  exhibitors 
in  such  cases  are  not  the  numerous  class,  the  operatives, 
but  the  employers,  whose  numbers  are  comparatively 
few  I  I  hesitate  to  impute  a  motive  so  unworthy  of 
statesmen  ;  but  surely  it  deserves  consideration  that  it  is 
impossible  to  benefit  an  industry  without  at  the  same 
time  benefitting  all  who  are  connected  with  that  industry 
in  whatever  manner  ;  and  that  if  employers  gain  through 
participation  in  an  Exposition  or  otherwise,  operatives 
must  gain  also. 

It  is  late  now  to  attempt  to  secure  for  American 


REMARKS  TO  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  INSTITUTE. 


39 


industry,  in  the  Austrian  Exposition,  all  the  advantages 
which  prompt  legislation  early  in  the  last  session  of  Con¬ 
gress  might  have  secured ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  on  that 
account  that  we  should  lose  these  advantages  altogether. 
Something  may  still  be  accomplished  which  is  quite 
worth  accomplishing,  if  Congress  can  be  induced  to  make 
the  necessary  provision  early  in  December  next.  I  call 
upon  all  the  friends  of  industry  who  hear  me ;  I  call 
especially  upon  every  member  of  this  Institute,  the  repre¬ 
sentative  of  the  industry  of  this  great  city,  and  to  a  cer¬ 
tain  extent  of  that  of  the  whole  country,  to  interest  them¬ 
selves  in  this  important  matter,  and  to  use  their  individual 
and  combined  influence  for  the  purpose  of  convincing 
their  representatives  in  Congress  that  the  people  desire 
this  thing.  An  earnest  and  united  effort  of  this  character, 
put  forth  promptly  at  the  opening  of  the  session,  ought 
not  to  fail,  and  it  seems  to  me  cannot  fail,  to  be  attended 
with  success. 

REMARKS  TO  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  INSTITUTE. 

One  word  in  conclusion,  gentlemen  of  the  Institute, 
especially  to  you.  You  have  behind  you  an  honorable 
history ;  you  have  before  you  a  promising  and  encouraging 
future.  On  yourselves  rests  a  heavy  present  responsibility. 
You  can  do  much  to  promote  and  stimulate  industrial 
progress  in  this  city  and  in  the  country,  and  you  can  do 
much  to  discourage  and  retard  it.  You  will  never,  I  am 
sure,  do  this  of  design ;  but  you  may  by  carelessness  of 


40 


REMARKS  TO  THE  MEMBERS  OF  THE  INSTITUTE. 


duty,  by  inattention,  by  neglect,  by  failure  to  distinguish 
and  justly  to  recompense  merit,  by  giving  undue  honor 
where  merit  is  doubtful  or  wanting.  These  are  the  pos¬ 
sible  errors  of  a  loose  sense  of  duty.  They  are  errors  not 
possible,  I  believe,  with  the  men  who  hold  in  their  keep¬ 
ing  at  this  moment  the  interests  of  the  Institute,  or  the 
managers  who  are  charged  with  the  conduct  of  this  Fair. 
In  all  these  gentlemen  I  have  the  highest  confidence  ;  I 
believe  that  the  public  have  the  same,  as  it  is  important 
that  they  should  have.  I  congratulate  you,  therefore, 
gentlemen,  upon  the  present  sound  and  prosperous  con¬ 
dition  of  your  Institute,  and  the  cheering  promise  it  holds 
out  of  a  long  and  brilliant  career  of  usefulness  in  the 
future. 


